It was very quiet in the tent when Jack awoke. He felt wide awake and, as he sat up, Hezekiah also stirred and opened his eyes.
“Where are we…Oh!” said Hezekiah, “I thought I might have dreamt it all but it’s really true! We came to Wishy-Washy Fair!”
Jack nodded. He wondered if the whole thing: Aletheia, Err, and Wishy-Washy Fair and even his friend Hezekiah and the rest of the Wallops too might all be a dream. But it seemed real enough: getting out of the blankets, putting on his armour boots, following Hezekiah to the tent door.
The adjoining stall was silent. The lines of Bibles and neat piles of leaflets were still there, as was the chair that Mrs Weighty usually sat in, with a roll of brightly coloured knitting just where she had left it. They looked around the empty stall and discovered a note pinned to the front of the stall for people that were passing. ‘Back in five minutes’ it said.
They didn’t discuss it much; they just walked slowly out of the Whole Truth stall into the swirling mist and lively excitement of Wishy-Washy Fair. There were plenty of people now, far more than earlier, and they thronged around the stalls and stood chatting in clusters and laughed and called to each other.
The two boys didn’t go too far, just as far as a big tent with sports stuff like footballs and cricket bats with sayings and verses printed on them. The sayings were all about God and being nice. There was a pair of ‘gospel trainers’ on special sale and sports T-shirts with a ‘Run the Race and Win’ logo on the front. They were examining a football with ‘Play Fair, Win Square’ printed on it when they heard an unmistakable voice. First Jack and then Hezekiah peered around a very large lady who was browsing through the ‘bargain’ Christmas cards close by.
Sure enough, there was Timmy Trial!
Timmy was not alone. He wasn’t with Wonky Dollar, but instead he had three big boys crowding around him and he was trying to explain to them how much money he had left to spend. Jack knew that he was trying to impress the big boys: in fact, it was almost as if Timmy was a bit afraid of them.
“I thought you had enough for a football so we could have a game,” the biggest boy said.
“We spent quite a bit of money in the food tent,” said Timmy.
“They’re from Topsy-Turvy Progressive School!” Hezekiah whispered in Jack’s ear.
Jack shrugged. “What’s that?” he asked.
“It’s the worst school in Err!” said Hezekiah. “They’re awful there! Everything is done the opposite way around: so the kids are in charge and make all the rules!”
“Wow,” said Jack. He couldn’t even imagine how a school like that might work, but he could see that the three lads that had somehow become friends with Timmy looked even more like bullies than Timmy did himself!
“We’ve got to help Timmy,” said Hezekiah.
“Right,” said Jack, wanting to do nothing of the sort.
Both boys hesitated. They did not want to approach the bigger boys, but what if they lost Timmy again? In the end the large lady looking at the Christmas cards decided it. She looked down at them and their whispered conversation with a disgruntled, disagreeable expression on her face.
“Are you buying Christmas cards?” she asked abruptly.
“Uh, no thanks,” Jack said, thinking that fact was abundantly obvious.
“Well, then,” said the lady. “If you wouldn’t mind moving…”
“Oh, sorry,” said Hezekiah, and the two boys reluctantly moved from their safe hiding place.
Timmy was staring in their direction when they emerged. Probably he had heard their voices.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded with a glance of concern at his big friends.
“Who are they?” one of the Topsy-Turvy boys sneered.
“Do they come from your country?” another asked. “Do they have any of your country’s money on them?”
“We’ve been trying to find you, Barmy!” exclaimed Hezekiah.
One of the boys thumped Timmy on the back and gave a roar of laughter. “The little squirt just called you Barmy!” he said.
“Are you going to stand for that?” another said.
“Excuse me!” the big lady said as she tried to manoeuvre around them again to look at the ‘I Love Angels’ bracelets.
The two smaller boys moved reluctantly out of her way and closer to Timmy and the other big boys.
Timmy’s face was red and then purple as he fixed on Hezekiah who was looking bemused and then most alarmed. “I was only trying to say…” he began.
Timmy took hold of one of Hezekiah’s ears and began to squeeze it hard between his fingers.
Hezekiah gave a squeal of agony and the big boys laughed.
“Leave him alone!” said Jack.
“Let’s see if they’ve got any money!” one of the bully boys said.
“Leave him alone!” Jack said again, and shoved Timmy as hard as he could.
It was unfortunate that Timmy was unbalanced at that moment. Usually Jack shoving Timmy would have no effect whatsoever, but this time he went reeling into the rack of bargain Christmas cards and crashing to the ground. In the confusion that followed – Timmy’s roar of rage, the equally loud roar of encouragement of the big boys, the shout of the man who ran the stall, the squeal of protest from the fat lady who seemed to be trapped in the middle of them again – through all this Jack was not slow to respond. He grabbed Hezekiah and together the two of them ducked through the back of the stall and ran as if their lives depended on it.
Jack had the vague idea that he and Hezekiah were running in the direction of the Weightys’ stall but he knew, when they had run for some time, that somewhere they had missed the way. They ducked and dived and weaved through what seemed like countless avenues of stalls and tents. All the time they ran he could hear the sounds of Timmy and the other boys shouting and pursuing and at last he and Hezekiah ducked behind a purple tent and stopped to catch their breath.
“What shall we do?” whispered Hezekiah.
“We can outrun them I think,” said Jack. “Otherwise…”
“Otherwise they’ll get us,” said Hezekiah. “And there are four of them!”
Cautiously Jack stuck his head around the side of the strange purple tent. “I think it’s just Timmy,” he whispered. It appeared that the other boys, perhaps having spent Timmy’s money and grown tired of Timmy himself, had abandoned him somewhere during the pursuit. Jack watched Timmy come to a stop, clutching his sides and panting and looking with interest at the purple tent behind which Jack and Hezekiah were hidden. It was a strange tent, and Jack realised they had escaped to the outskirts of the Fair where the grey mist was thicker even than before and where the sun seemed barely to shine. No longer were they close to stalls which sold trinkets that said ‘Smile! God Loves You!’ and had nice pictures for sale with sayings that, even if they weren’t exactly in the Bible, seemed to mean good things. Here the stalls were more secluded and mysterious. Opposite to where they were hidden Jack could see a ‘Spiritual Tattoos’ tent which didn’t look very nice at all. And there were definitely shadows that reminded Jack of what Hezekiah had said about Snares. He was about to say so when he heard a woman’s voice.
“Are you coming in?” she asked. She had a calm, deep voice and it seemed she was talking to Timmy.
“Umm…are you Mrs Palm who does the prophecies?” asked Timmy.
“It’s Ms Palm actually,” the lady said, and they saw her now emerging slowly from the front of the tent to face Timmy. “And yes, I am the Wander Palm of ‘Wander Palm’s Prophetic Mystery Telling,’” and she gestured to the sign above her purple tent.
She was a tall lady and she was swathed in black and deep purple which matched the tent. Jack didn’t need Hezekiah’s frantic whisper in his ear to realise that the appearance of the lady was not particularly reassuring.
“We’ve got to warn Timmy,” said Hezekiah. “I don’t think this can be right at all!”
“Umm…I think I heard about you from my…umm, friend…Wonky Dollar,” said Timmy.
“Mr Dollar was here earlier,” the lady said. “He found my prophecies most relevant to his future needs!”
“Is prophesying in the Bible?” Jack whispered to Hezekiah.
“I think so,” said Hezekiah sounding perplexed, “but I still don’t think this is right!”
“Perhaps it’s not the whole Truth of the Bible, like Mr Weighty warned us,” said Jack. “Perhaps she’s just pretending because she’s heard of prophecies in the Bible or something.”
“I was supposed to meet Wonky at the Fair,” said Timmy. “Do you know where he was going…?”
“He was going to meet his future with fortitude,” the lady said mysteriously.
“What on earth does that mean?” whispered Hezekiah.
“I don’t think it means anything!” said Jack.
“Come in, young man,” the lady said to Timmy in a deep, mysterious voice. “I won’t bite, you know, you need not look so cautious! My prophecies are a Bible gift!”
“I don’t have much money left,” Timmy was saying to the lady. He held out a handful of coins and the lady picked up one and looked at it closely.
“I haven’t seen money like this before,” she said, clearly impressed. “You can have a few minutes of prophecy for this. You do have such a promising face!”
“Do I?” said Timmy, looking pleased.
Jack and Hezekiah glanced at each other. Anyone who told Timmy that he had a promising face either needed their eyesight tested or their prophetic ability examined.
“See!” murmured Hezekiah. “It can’t be right!”
Jack agreed. But really what could they do…?
“We’ll wait for Timmy,” he decided. “And take him back to the Weightys with us.”
“Can you really tell me about the future?” Timmy asked the lady as he followed her into the tent.
“I can examine your prospects,” the lady said ambiguously.
Timmy and the lady vanished and Hezekiah beckoned Jack to a small hole in the side of the purple tent where they could peep in and watch Timmy have his future told.
Jack had never seen someone trying to tell the future before. It was pretty odd. The lady was examining Timmy’s head as if he was being checked for head lice when there was an outbreak at school. She was telling him that he would one day grow very tall and strong and might even be a great man in Err. How she got all that through Timmy’s untidy, uncombed and probably even unwashed hair was maybe the mystery bit of Wander Palm’s Prophecies.
“Will I be rich?” asked Timmy.
“You have gold prospects,” the lady said soothingly in her mesmerising voice.
“Umm…does that mean I’ll be rich?” asked Timmy.
Hezekiah bit back a sudden giggle.
“She’s just saying anything,” Jack whispered in disgust. “It’s just as well that Timmy doesn’t understand her!”
“Will I make money in Err by catching it from the sky?” asked Timmy.
“Many have tried and the chosen few will succeed,” the lady said impressively.
There was a pause in which Timmy screwed up his face and evidently tried to figure out whether he would, or would not, succeed in making his fortune in the land of Err.
“And umm…will I go back home soon?” asked Timmy.
“Home?” the lady considered. “Ah, but where is home?” she asked as if there was something deep and meaningful about it.
“Home to England,” explained Timmy. “That’s where I live…”
“I thought that you lived in a country called Grandad’s Sheds?” Hezekiah whispered to Jack.
Jack shook his head, concentrating on the scene inside the tent. “He shouldn’t have told her that,” he hissed. “She thinks he’s from Err somewhere! She doesn’t actually know anything!”
“Yes, yes,” the lady said, “England. Soon loved ones will be reunited once more…”
“How do I get there exactly?” asked Timmy.
The lady hesitated. “Our way will be clear before us when it shall be revealed,” she said in a most significant tone.
Jack had suddenly had enough. “What rot!” he said to Hezekiah. “That doesn’t really mean anything at all!”
The lady’s head snapped around and Timmy was staring open-mouthed at the tent wall.
“Who’s there?” the lady said sternly as if she was talking to something invisible.
There was a pause in which Hezekiah tightly clutched Jack’s arm, and then:
“A spirit from the future is here,” Jack droned in a strange, unearthly voice.
Hezekiah started suddenly and pinched Jack’s arm. “What are you doing?” he hissed wildly.
Jack shook his head at him, putting a finger to his lips.
“Timmy Trial must leave at once!” he said in the same oddly detached voice which was most unlike his own.
The lady’s face went very white, and then very red. Timmy seemed utterly bereft of speech.
“Who are you…?” faltered the lady.
“Leave at once Timmy Trial,” said the unearthly voice. “Or more doom will befall you!”
Timmy got suddenly from his chair and staggered slightly as he stood.
The lady stood too. “I don’t think it’s anything to worry about,” she said to Timmy, but Jack heard the awful uncertainty in her voice. “This has never happened before. It might be a special revelation…”
Jack hadn’t thought of what to do next; he was utterly astonished that his pretence had been remotely believable. He decided to continue.
“Your friends are waiting for you!” he intoned in the same ghostly voice. “Come out Timmy Trial! Come out Timmy Trial!”
Hezekiah gave a sudden, helpless splutter of hysterical laughter.
And instantly the spell was broken.
With an unearthly, frightening cry of rage the lady moved swiftly from the back of the tent and around the corner before the two boys could think to flee.
“You wicked, wicked boys!” she yelled. “How dare you say those things! How dare you…!” The deep mysterious voice and the dignity were gone, and the wild look in her eyes gave her a terrifying appearance.
“You were making things up too!” Jack said desperately. His bold words were certainly true but they were unlikely to sooth the outraged woman in the black and purple robes. Hezekiah grabbed his arm and once more the two of them were on the run.
And once again Timmy was in hot pursuit.
